


Testing Time

by TonicHoliday



Category: Old Town Road - Lil Nas X ft. Billy Ray Cyrus (Music Video)
Genre: Do-Over, Gen, Second Chances, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-08
Updated: 2020-04-08
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:04:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23478922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TonicHoliday/pseuds/TonicHoliday
Summary: Old Town had its secrets, yet only one of its residents knew them all; it was par for the course when one had eternity to play with.(Inspired by thefull-length music video.)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 5
Collections: Robot Rainbow 2020





	Testing Time

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bold_seer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bold_seer/gifts).



> Thanks to asuralucier for the beta <3

Old Town had its secrets, yet only one of its residents knew them all; it was par for the course when one had eternity to play with. 

The dimensions of Nas’s preternatural playground weren’t too restrictive. Old Town was the epicentre, the place where he’d first found himself revived and not, as he’d expected, stone dead. After the fifth time he’d been delivered to an unfamiliar era, he went in search of its boundaries. They were there: not physical, but circumstantial. Something would happen to stop him going further, and he respected that, because what lay beyond… he wasn’t sure he wanted to know. 

Nas hadn’t expected to find another traveller. 

They met during Nas’s third visit to the 1970s, in a dive bar that habitually attracted uninvited guests hoping to empty the register. A group stormed in firing pistols into the air, and Nas and Billy were the only two who hadn’t flinched. They’d sat comfortably while the patrons fled, bellies full of watered-down beer, and raised their glasses to each other across the tables. 

“When you die all the time, it ain’t so scary,” Nas told Billy while their wrists were bound, hoping he’d sound mysterious. 

While the raiders discussed the particulars of dispatching their accidental hostages, Billy was more preoccupied with the fact he hadn’t finished his drink. Next thing Nas knew, they were in a barn loft in 1790’s Old Town, still wearing their flares. 

Since then, they’d travelled together. 

They never actively went looking for trouble. Trouble found them. Wherever fate dumped them (or _when_ ever), there’d be someone or something that didn’t take kindly to them. Whether it was a trigger-happy bandit or an inconveniently misplaced manhole cover, their stays were limited. 

It was Billy who suggested the experiment: tracking how long they could last in each time before something went wrong. The longest so far was five years, two months. The shortest was twelve seconds (or thereabout—it’s hard to keep track of time when the universe is imploding.) 

The ticking clock was unfortunate if they’d gotten comfortable. Other times, like when they’d landed in 3499 as the only humans Old Town’s artificial society had seen for centuries, it was a blessing. 

A blessing was how Nas saw their whole predicament. Life was exciting when you didn’t know what waited around the corner, when you had time to try everything life offered—everything Old Town had to offer at least.

Billy was an old hand at hold-ups and he was proud of it too. He kept one of his favourite wanted posters in his back pocket because, unlike the others, the artist had gotten his beard right, and he was very particular about his beard. Their bank raid had been relatively straightforward: a shootout, a daring escape, a highspeed chase on their trusty steeds. The usual. 

They dismounted outside a cabin Nas visited once before, back before he found Billy. It’d looked more rundown then, so must’ve been a few decades forward. However, like last time, he had to flee. Fast.

Nas’s last thought as he hurtled down the mineshaft was, _a mineshaft, seriously_? Because what kind of idiot jumped headfirst into one of those? His first thought once he landed on freshly mown grass in someone’s backyard was, _1980s or 2020s_? Because the girl staring at him how anyone would stare at a man who’d just fallen from the sky would’ve fit well in either decade. A glance at the cars answered that.

Billy would find him again. Nas was sure of it. Until then, it was time to have some fun.


End file.
